The play is part of AHS’s One Act Festival, which continues to play Nov. 15 and 16

 

ATASCADERO — The Atascadero High School (AHS) Drama Department is currently in the middle of the run of its One Act Festival. Atascadero News had the pleasure of being in the audience opening night, Friday, Nov. 8, to watch the magic unfold as the students took the audience through three multimedia, one-act plays. One of which, was written and animated by senior Diego Silvano Luna.

“I’m excited to see students have the courage to come forward and say I really want to try this because it’s risky business putting your art out there,” stated drama teacher Shawna Volpa. “It’s very subjective, and you don’t know how well it’s going to be received. So, I’m very excited to see them have that courage to be like, this is what I’ve created. And then giving them the platform to showcase that and let them see, dang, you know, I can do that, and I’m actually really good at it.” 

Luna’s one-act short, “Monsty,” was Volpa’s inspiration for finding two more one-act plays for her students to perform, which created the festival to feature her students’ work. It was also Luna’s mix of animation and actors on stage that turned the whole festival into mixed-media storytelling.

“Diego’s piece is what inspired my thought of ‘let’s try to combine this to be mixed-media,’” added Volpa.

Between the mixed-media elements and the tone of all three productions, Volpa directed her immensely talented students to give audiences a cohesive collection of original plays that were reminiscent of experiencing Edinburgh, Scotland’s Fringe Festival.

“I wanted it to feel alien,” Volpa said of the staging of all the shows.

The first play was “The Price,” by Don Zolidis. Based on Hans Christen Anderson’s fairytale, “The Story of a Mother,” the play hasn’t even been released yet and technically had its first performance on the AHS Blackbox stage. The story follows a mother whose infant daughter is taken by Death, and her journey races against him and saves her daughter’slife before it’s too late.

“I wanted it to feel a little bit disconnected so that you’re always thinking instead of getting sucked into the emotions of the play,” Volpa said of the blocking for the act’s narrators.

AHS’s version of “The Price” featured projections and intricate blocking from Milo Graceffa, Alia Luna, and Aubrey Villa as the narrators. It also featured wonderful performances from Sabrina Rivera as Mother and Jonah Sullivan as Death, with Lucy Peterson, Jonathan Mankins, Cooper Love, Anika Lundeen, Matthew Villa, and Samii Barnes rounding out the talented cast.

The festival then went straight into the debut of Luna’s ‘Monsty,’ which highlighted his talent as both a self-taught-animater and a storyteller. The six minutes of animation, which took over 50 hours to create, moved across the screen and reminded me of a mix of anime crossed with Disney storyboard animation, complete with narration by AHS Assistant Director Hannah Emmack. At the end of the six minutes and with the magic of live theatre, the action spilled (quite literally) onto the stage for the rest of the play. The entirety of the show runs for 15 minutes and is the shortest of the three. 

“When you watch it, it’s like you’re watching a mini-movie, and then suddenly you’re now back into the Blackbox,” stated Luna. 

“Monsty” tells the story of a young monster who sneaks into the human world through the closet door of a young, struggling human girl. As they become less afraid of the human world, Monsty’s kindness shows the audience that human cruelty is the actual monster and escapism is the consequence. 

“The concept came from me personally. A lot of the concepts are not based from real life but the message behind it, like the escapism, I’ve always kind of escaped in my own life,” Luna said. “Especially all my life, I went straight to drawing or video games or books, and I didn’t really realize that was escapism until an English class. I started to think that it would be cool if I could make a play about escapism.”

Milo Graceffa brought the colorful Monsty to life on stage as they befriended young Claire, played by Mayumi Brown. The small but impactful cast also included Sabrina Rivera as Claire’s mom. 

“It’s very meaningful, and it has a lot of impact, which I’m hoping certain people will feel,” Luna said. “It’s a lot of childhood-related stuff, and I’m hoping that adults and even kids feel like, ‘I can relate to this,’ in a way, with the ending.”

After intermission, the festival returned with Kendra Thomas’s “Boxes.” The one-act followed Jack (Jonathan Mankins), who’s your average student, as he gets his box and goes about deciding if he should keep it as more and more people add their expectations for him into the box.

“It’s this weird abstract idea, where at the age of 13, these kids are given boxes, and they’re empty, and then people just start putting stuff in them,” said Volpa of the show.

The play was brought to life by 10 other talented actors on top of Mankins and made the audience think about responsibilities, hopes, and dreams in a whole new way.

You can catch the One Act Festival Friday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 16, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door or can be purchased at ahsblackbox.ludus.com/index.php. 

Featured Image: (From left) Milo Graceffa as Monsty and Mayumi Brown as Claire in Diego Luna’s one-act, multi-media play,”Monsty.” Contributed Photo.